Review: AMC Fork and Screen; It is what it is truly cooked up to be?

We’ve recently had the chance to experience the AMC Fork and Screen experience at the AMC Disney Springs 24 Dine-In Theater, but is it all that it sets out to be?

AMC Fork and Screen is AMC’s answer to a movie theatre and restaurant being rolled into one. The menu is limited but also extensive with a menu that is geared toward the artisan foodie in all of us. At the Downtown Disney location, they had available Flatbread Pizzas, Sushi, conventional and unconventional Bar Snacks, burgers and salads among their 47 item menu. They also have a wide range of drinks available including Draft, Domestic and Imported beers, wine, and Coca-Cola Free Style which makes the drink selection easily over 150 items!

Is it worth the money? AMC Fork and Screen is pricey and the cost of the food is separate to the ticket. We saw Passengers in 3D and alone the ticket would have cost us $17.80, but we had a promotional code for the ticket to cost $2 from our phone provider T-Mobile. We had ordered a Diet Coke from the Coke Freestyle and the Royal Burger and that before tip was another $18.41. We tipped our waiter 18% or $3.09 to bring our food cost to a nice round $21.40 and if we added the original cost of our ticket, at full price of the movie and the food would have cost us $39.20 instead of the $23.40 we paid.

Yes… the soda (with free refills did cost $5.19). AMC charges $5.00 for a medium (32oz) and $5.50 for a large (40oz) for regular concessions. Our soda came in a 16 to 24oz tumbler glass.

The cost of the menu items was actually very reasonable and on par with what you would find with other restaurants. That is until you get to the Popcorn, Candy, and Beverages which were standard movie theatre fare at the same cost if you didn’t go to the Dine-in screenings. The Dine-in Popcorn cost $8.49, the Candies are $3.99 for a regular size and $4.49 for a large size. There’s also a surcharge of about $3 when you see a Dine-in movie. The evening cost for a 3D movie at the theatre costs $15.43 while the Fork and Screen (which is reserved seating) cost about $18.63.

When you first enter the Fork and Screen Auditorium.

When you first get to the theatre, the Fork and Screen entrance at Downtown Disney which has had 4 theaters reserved exclusively for the dine-in movies and their own entrance. Guests who normally go to the AMC Downtown Disney would enter directly across from Splitsville whereas the entrance to AMC Dine-In theaters is direct across from Planet Hollywood. When you see a 3D movie at the theatre, the ticket taker would give you a pair of the glasses when he or she gives you back your ticket stub. At the Dine-in theatres, your 3D glasses are already waiting at the table for you so all you need to do is go into your auditorium and sit back and relax.

View from my “cheap” seat.

We were lucky that there was not a lot of other guests in my showing in passengers, but were amazed when we did get into the theatre. Many guests sat in the side aisles compared to the few of us that sat in the middle row. With very few of us sitting near the middle of the theatre (It’s a belief that We’ve seen a lot that the best place to sit far back by the projection equipment but it really isn’t). Theatres used to be build with a much smaller slope in the seating area, so you were simply sitting very slightly higher than the movie-goers in front of you, rather than in stadium seating.Which unfortunately our theatre that we saw Passengers in had the effect of the smaller slopes. We sat in Row G, Seat 6 (out of 11 rows; A-K and 10 seats per row) about 2/3rds back from the screen in the center of the screen. While everyone gets a passable view from the screen, the audio sweet spot is 2/3 back and in the middle. That’s where audio engineers sit to balance the sound, and where the projectionist will sit to both calibrate the sound system for the film and the focus of the screen.

The $5.19 soda

The seats were reclining seats but they were a bit of an annoyance at first as you would have to physically move forward in the seat to be able to eat. That would give you about 6 inches from the back of the seat for when you moved back. The reclining feature was very loose and allowed you to easily move back in the seat. It can startle you if you don’t expect it at first as it can fell like you are quickly falling back at first. The seat doesn’t have a cupholder and isn’t expected to have a cupholder as you have the table in front of you. The table felt more like a counter you would sit at in a bar than a table.

The waitstaff during the trailers in the beginning come to each group and takes their orders.In our screening, there was 2 or 3 wait staff with 2 bussers who were assisting the waitstaff. They came around fairly quick and were fairly fast (before the movie). We ordered with our diet coke “The Royal” burger for $12 ($3 more if you wanted bison) which had on it: bacon, brie cheese, caramelized onions, baby arugula, sweet fig jam and royal sauce. The burgers are 6 oz. with a custom blend of ground chuck and brisket and served on a toasted brioche bun.

The Royal Burger and Fries

The Royal Burger and Fries showed up right when the film started. The burgers all come with “royal sauce” but we couldn’t quite make out the flavor in that sauce. The burger was really delicious and the sweet fig jam in our opinion was the star of the burger (even when you count the burger having bacon and caramelized onions). The French fries are dusted with a bit of garlic, salt and pepper seasoning and were fresh and crisp and really enjoyable; they were on par with fries you can find at steakhouses.

The utensils were already at the table, presented in an “X” pattern for you and your guest at the film. It came if the standard metal utensil set.

The overall experience was quite enjoyable but also quite expensive. It truly is a once-in-a-while experience, but it’s not for those wanting to see a movie like we did for the first time. Within the first few minutes of the film, you can expect to hear the clinking of the metal utensils when you unwrap them from the napkin. From there it’s generally smooth sailing, but when we did press the button to get a member of the waitstaff to assist you we did experience a long wait. We are not sure how many waiters are available for each theatre or if they all share the staff. When we did press the button to get a member of the wait staff to get a refill on our beverage, we had experienced a wait of about 10 or so minutes for them to come and assist us. From there we waited another 10 or so minutes for the refill to arrive with the waitress literally coming back to our table to ask us if we did get the drink right before the drink showed up.

We found the premise of the Dine-In quite distracting during the movie with our food showing up right at the beginning which permitted us to miss the crucial element that set the plot in motion. When we also got our refill it was quite distracting for the waitstaff to have shown up and having to physically press the button to turn off the small assistance button that also sends a signal (and glows red) that is shown on a screen near the auditorium entrance door that we ask for a member of the wait staff to assist us.

They do have an extremely limited Kids menu with only 4 items that’s for children ages 12 and younger that are served with fries, a fruit cup and choice of soft drink or 2% milk for $8. However, everything else is geared toward the artisan foodie in all of us with flatbread Pizzas, Sushi, Burgers and Salads and more! The food is great and the prices very reasonable depending on what you purchase from the menu except for the beverages. It is costly with the tickets and food prices combined as our was near $40 that is if we didn’t have a code for a $2 movie.

The short story of our review of AMC Dine-In Theatres, It’s great for if you have seen the movie already as it can be quite distracting, have a special occasion you are celebrating, want to have a special evening at the movies with your significant other or if you have a great gift card balance or promo code to AMC.

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